A MAN man denied yesterday that he had sexually abused teenagers at three homes in which he had worked.

Keith Sutton told a Liverpool Crown Court jury: "I haven't abused any of these people at all."

It is claimed that Sutton raped a 17-year-old girl, making her pregnant, committed serious sexual offences against boys aged 14 and 16 and also indecently assaulted those three and another boy aged 15.

Questioned by his counsel, Robert Fordham QC, Sutton said he could think of no reason whatsoever why the three men and the woman had made the allegations.

He said he had never told anything but the truth when questioned by the police and that there was no truth in the allegations.

Asked by Mr Fordham whether he had ever molested, abused or interfered with the first boy, who it is claimed he repeatedly assaulted, Sutton replied: "Never."

The final boy, who is serving life for murder, had never been abused by him in a caravan at the woods in Formby, he said.

Asked about the girl, Sutton described her as volatile and someone who could be troublesome.

Sutton, 58, of Cheapside, Formby, who has no previous convictions, pleads not guilty to 41 offences over 13 years until December 1993.

Not guilty verdicts on six similar charges involving another boy, which he also denied, were ordered by Judge Brian Lewis at the close of the prosecution's case.

Between July 1976 and November 1981 Sutton worked at a home in Merseyside before becoming deputy head of a Wirral home until November 1987.

He then went to work at another Merseyside home until March 1990 before becoming the head of another Merseyside home.

The homes, for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, cannot be named for legal reasons.